“Now you have come back and got into a fuss with one of their big men. What do you do that for?”
Leslie smiled and toyed with his revolver.
“Well, you see, dad, the men who captured me, and from whom I escaped, are not here. This fellow, Calaman, who is practically the head of things in Bolongu, never saw me till to-day, although he knew his men had captured me.”
“He knew your name?”
“I don’t think so. All he heard was that his people had got hold of a white man who had much money, and that he could demand a fortune from the father of this white man if he chose.”
“And of course he would choose,” interposed Jefferson.
“There was no ‘of course’ about it. The people of the Golden Scarab have wealth themselves. They might have decided to offer me as a sacrifice to that interesting creature. In fact, I heard such talk among the men who caught me in the woods while I was on that tiger hunt, and that made me all the more determined to get away.”
“I am glad to know that Calaman has never seen you before. He is the sort of man that I should not like for an active enemy unless I had weapons and plenty of room to fight.”
“That’s all right, dad,” answered Leslie reassuringly. “You need not fear for me. I shan’t be hurt. But I’m not going to leave this part of the country until I have that scoundrel, Pike, in a pair of handcuffs.”